Patient (PT) participation and disaster (D) agency (AG) coordination for oncology (ONC) PT D preparedness (PREP): Analysis of the Great Southern California Shake Out (GSCSO) drill and implications for regional and national emergency (E) planning (P)

2009 ◽  
Vol 27 (15_suppl) ◽  
pp. e17549-e17549
Author(s):  
R. A. Moss ◽  
C. Presant ◽  
M. Lamb

e17549 Background: PT E PREP is important (Katrina, Los Angeles fires 2007, 2008). MOASC developed the ONC PT E Network (OPEN) (www.open-central.com; Proc ASCO 2006 a6142, 2007 a17003 , and 2008 a6545). On Novermber 13, 2008, 28 organizations and sponsors (US and Cal govt and private) conducted the GSCSO drill with a Richter scale 7.8 earthquake. MOASC tested OPEN as part of GSCSO. Methods: In OPEN, PTs were given wallet cards with E information (diagnosis, stage, treatment, doses). As part of GSCSO, MOASC a) surveyed two practices in two counties to evaluate ONC PT motivation and PREP; and b) surveyed D AG to determine the triage program for ONC PTs who required CT. PTs in two offices pretended the ONC offices had been closed due to the D. They were asked to call the MOASC E line and advise an address to which they would evacuate where MOASC referred PTs to a participating physician for chemotherapy (CT). Results: 36 PTs participated. In office interviews, PTs had concerns about transportation to evacuation locations during the D, how they would find available phone lines during an E, and whether MOASC lines would be responsive in an E. Only 5 PTs (13.9%) contacted the MOASC E line within 24 hours. The 4 most available D AGs were unaware of how to triage ONC PTs requiring CT, and were unaware of MOASC and ASCO resources. They wanted to refer ONC PTs to E rooms which would be unresponsive to PT needs for CT. Conclusions: ONC PTs are not yet motivated for D PREP (concerns regarding current CT have higher priority). Responding AGs are not capable of correctly triaging ONC PTs for CT. Neither PTs nor doctors have a list of D AGs. State ONC societies, ASCO, and ACCC should create regional E phone response lines through state societies, regional E oncologist contacts, and a single national facilitating D response office, as well as coordinate regional and national D AGs so that PTs can be triaged to appropriate resources. National D AGs funded to coordinate responses should be the source of support for this process. Motivating ONC PTs for EP will require reimbursed practice participation. No significant financial relationships to disclose.

2014 ◽  
Vol 91 (4) ◽  
pp. 56-63
Author(s):  
Josh Sides

In 1916, Cornelius Birket Johnson, a Los Angeles fruit farmer, killed the last known grizzly bear in Southern California and the second-to last confirmed grizzly bear in the entire state of California. Johnson was neither a sportsman nor a glory hound; he simply hunted down the animal that had been trampling through his orchard for three nights in a row, feasting on his grape harvest and leaving big enough tracks to make him worry for the safety of his wife and two young daughters. That Johnson’s quarry was a grizzly bear made his pastoral life in Big Tujunga Canyon suddenly very complicated. It also precipitated a quagmire involving a violent Scottish taxidermist, a noted California zoologist, Los Angeles museum administrators, and the pioneering mammalogist and Smithsonian curator Clinton Hart Merriam. As Frank S. Daggett, the founding director of the Los Angeles County Museum of History, Science and Art, wrote in the midst of the controversy: “I do not recollect ever meeting a case where scientists, crooks, and laymen were so inextricably mingled.” The extermination of a species, it turned out, could bring out the worst in people.


2021 ◽  
Vol 7 (13) ◽  
pp. eaaz5691
Author(s):  
Kimberly Blisniuk ◽  
Katherine Scharer ◽  
Warren D. Sharp ◽  
Roland Burgmann ◽  
Colin Amos ◽  
...  

The San Andreas fault has the highest calculated time-dependent probability for large-magnitude earthquakes in southern California. However, where the fault is multistranded east of the Los Angeles metropolitan area, it has been uncertain which strand has the fastest slip rate and, therefore, which has the highest probability of a destructive earthquake. Reconstruction of offset Pleistocene-Holocene landforms dated using the uranium-thorium soil carbonate and beryllium-10 surface exposure techniques indicates slip rates of 24.1 ± 3 millimeter per year for the San Andreas fault, with 21.6 ± 2 and 2.5 ± 1 millimeters per year for the Mission Creek and Banning strands, respectively. These data establish the Mission Creek strand as the primary fault bounding the Pacific and North American plates at this latitude and imply that 6 to 9 meters of elastic strain has accumulated along the fault since the most recent surface-rupturing earthquake, highlighting the potential for large earthquakes along this strand.


2021 ◽  
Vol 44 (1) ◽  
pp. 87-92
Author(s):  
Donna Medel ◽  
Artur Galimov ◽  
Leah Meza ◽  
Jane K. Steinberg ◽  
Carla J. Berg ◽  
...  

The overall aim of this study is to examine vape shop business operations during COVID-19 among a cohort of 88 vape shops in the Greater Los Angeles area in Southern California, located in ethnically diverse communities. A total of six web- and/or phone-based assessments were conducted over a 12-week period (April 1, 2020–June 10, 2020), extending from the mandated closure of nonessential businesses (Stage 1; Assessments 1–3) to the reopening of nonessential sectors (Stage 2; Assessments 4–6), to evaluate business operations (open and closure statuses). The proportion of vape shops found to be noncompliant with the Governor’s executive order (i.e., open) during Stage 1 gradually increased from 54 (61.4%) at Assessment 1 (week of April 1, 2020) to 58 (65.9%) at Assessment 3 (week of April 29, 2020). Moreover, vape shops located in Hispanic/Latino and Korean/Asian communities (vs. those in non-Hispanic White and African American communities) were more likely to stay open both during and after the shutdown at Assessments 1 and 6. More specifically, vape shops located in Hispanic/Latino communities were significantly more likely to offer walk-in service during Assessment 1 (during the shutdown), and vape shops in Hispanic/Latino and Korean/Asian were significantly more likely to offer walk-in service during Assessment 6 (after the re-opening). This study demonstrates high rates of noncompliance with shutdown orders among vape shops located in ethnic communities, thus suggesting higher contextual risk factors of COVID-19 exposure among certain ethnic communities.


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